Tokyo Part Deux

Another post, because I wanted to get caught up and I'm worried if I don't post now I'll forget something.

Today we got up at the crack of dawn. The wake up call came at 6 and it seemed as if we just went to bed.  On a side note we received a call from Greg's parents saying that Tati Sam's flight was cancelled and therefore they wouldn't be able to come out and meet us. Needless to say we were heartbroken. We didn't know it at the time but a Fed Ex plane had crashed at Narita earlier that day. 

The reason we were up so early was because we had a city tour planned for this morning. Included in our travel package is a free breakfast, this one is a buffet. When I think of a buffet at breakfast it is usually some breakfast pastries, eggs, sausage and bacon. This place is so different. They have all the traditional japanese breakfast items, like rice, something similar to grits, and hard boiled eggs but they also have miso soup, sausage, bacon, egg casserole, stir fry, breakfast curry, salad, fruit and much more. Breakfast was delicious and I can't wait to eat it again tomorrow.  

After breakfast we took the shuttle back to Disneyland and headed to the train station. We were headed to the Hato Bus terminal. It was quite a distance and we had to be there by 8:40 in order to make the tour.  We made it with 20 minutes to spare thanks to Greg's amazing navigation.  An added bonus was that because of the time of our tour we got to experience Tokyo rush hour.  I'm sure you've all seen the pictures of people being stuffed into train cars and I'll tell you that those images do not do the actual event justice. These train cars are so packed that you can see peoples faces smashed against the glass doors. We stuffed ourselves onto one of these trains in order to get to where we needed to go. Gabriella hated it, the whole time I couldn't even look down at her for fear of looking like I was sniffing the hair of the person in front of me.  It was an experience that I'm pleased to have had and that I hope never to have again. 

Our tour took us to 4 sites. The first was Tokyo Tower, it reminded me of the CN tower in Toronto, fast elevator, pretty view and a hole in the floor so you can see how far it is to the ground.  We even used the hole in the floor to recreate a picture that we have at the CN tower. After the tower we headed to the Imperial Palace. Only 2 people live in this residence, the Emperor and Empress.  We were only allowed to see the outer garden, but as an unexpected bonus we got to see the crown prince and his family drive out. The crown princess even waved to us as they passed.  It was very excited this was the first time I've ever seen a real life princess. I asked Gabriella what she thought and she seemed ambivalent, she was probably expecting someone who looked like Cinderella to come storming out of the castle.  The third stop was Akaska and the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan.  It was a beautiful temple and the surrounding market place was fun to explore. I was able to get a steamed bun as a snack and Gabriella and Greg enjoyed some cookies.  I also got a new bag!  Once we loaded ourselves onto the bus we headed through Ginza to a pearl factory where we learned how cultured pearls are made. The demonstration was amazing and the jewelry they had for us to view afterwards was truly mind blowing.  We had lunch at the World Trade Center and then decided to head to Yokohama.

Why Yokohama you ask? Because there is another Hard Rock there. We took the train again and Gabriella was able to take a 20 minute nap.  We walked to the Hard Rock from the train station and passed through the biggest mall I've ever seen. It was 7 stories and full of every type of store imaginable.  We made our purchase at the Hard Rock and headed back to the hotel. We once again stopped at Mihamma and had dinner at Ishikara (downtown disney). I had a wonderful 4 course meal and Greg and Gabriella both had pasta. We finally got back to the hotel and hopefully as I'm writing this Gabriella is sound asleep and Greg is resting.

We have a huge day tomorrow.  Tokyo Disneyland! 

By the way if you are interested in the 100's of pictures we've already taken they are up at our sharesite on Shutterfly.